Journey of the Fool at Midwinter

Sometimes you need to do what is right for your mentality, even if it puts your body under physical stress. Feel free to disagree with me, but the back/knee/hip pain was absolutely worth the drive to Stanwell Park Beach to watch the sun rise on Midwinter’s Day.

With the rising of the Midwinter Sun, may there be Peace in the East.

Six weeks ago I hurt my back and I’ve been off work ever since, and with the cats not being great conversationalists, I needed to get out and I needed to celebrate this day.

Midwinter’s Day – to me – is like Herne’s birthday. It’s his day where he takes his crown as the Oak King to lead the Southern Hemisphere out of the harsh winter (that’s still to come as it’s a late winter) and prepares us for the warmth of Spring.

Given my disconnection of late, given that I’ve been concentrating on healing my body, I needed to do something to heal/stimulate and reconnect my mind with the spiritual divine. My feet have never been so cold on sand (and I grew up in Victoria) but watching the sun rise, being able to perform my morning greeting, and rededicating my path to Herne the Hunter was worth every moment of discomfort.

Same sunrise, different camera on the phone.

At this current moment I have entered the tarot archetype of the Fool (or ‘Wanderer’ as it’s known in my deck of the Wildwood Tarot). I have resigned from my job due to my back problems, I am slowly packing the house, and next month we will have relocated 490km south-west to the Riverina.

Also, if you’re in Sydney and would like to work with the tarot in a way you may not have considered before, I recommend coming to Michelle from Seeking Spirit’s tarot workshop. Each workshop is dedicated to an individual card from the Major Arcana, which really allows you to dive deep into meaning, it’s placement on the journey, and journeying into the card itself. Even if you’ve been practicing tarot for a life time, shared knowledge from open group discussion can open your awareness to concepts you may not have considered.

We discussed the Fool today. Given the journey I am about to embark on, I am the Fool stepping out of the cave, terrified of what’s to come, but anxious for the journey all the same.

Moving to the Riverina is a massive leap, and it’s a leap we’ve been wanting to do since we first bought land in the region five years ago. We’re moving from Australia’s largest city to a small town with no traffic lights or parking meters. Given the stress on my body from my desk job from the last two projects (3-4 years) this is going to be a welcome change. You wouldn’t normally think a desk job can be stressful, but I have two discs in my lower back that say otherwise.

The move also means new land – new land energies, new seasons, and a different environmental history. The colour of the landscape is different, the eucalyptus are different, flowers will bloom at a different time than those in Sydney (and those in my part of Sydney bloom differently than Coastal and Mountainous Sydney).

On the journey between Tarcutta and Wagga Wagga I’ve always had a sense of being home. I cannot wait to see if that sensation carries over to where we will be living.